Toshiba Phone System

How do satellite telephone systems affect long - distance telephone calls?

Public Comments

1. The most prominent would be the lag time from when you speak to when a person hears the message, typically about a second. It makes conversation a bit 'interesting' with the delays in responses.
2. Like the previous answerer stated, it would place an audible delay in what you hear and what the other person hears. Pretty much all domestic phone calls do not go through satellites and most international long distance calls (to modernized, non-isolated countries) do not either. There are fiber optic cables laid on the sea floor between continents that allow for many simultaneous phone coversations and data to be transmitted internationally. The satellites serve mostly as a back up these days for if all the circuits are full. Some extremely isolated areas will have their calls go through satellites as well.